Farron resigned from the front bench of the Liberal Democrats on 5 March 2008 in protest at the party's abstention from a parliamentary vote on the EU referendum. However he later returned to the party's front bench as spokesperson for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.[8] He is a member of the Beveridge Group within the Liberal Democrats.[9]

In the 2010 general election, Farron achieved an 11.1% swing from the Conservatives, winning by a majority of 12,264 in his historically Conservative seat. This result was against the run of the rest of the party, making Westmorland and Lonsdale one of the few Liberal Democrat strongholds.[10]

On 27 May 2010, Farron announced he would be standing for the position of Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats, made vacant by the resignation of Vince Cable. On 9 June, Farron lost the competition to the former party President, Simon Hughes. Hughes won by 20 votes; having had 38 nominations from the parliamentary party, compared to Farron's 18.

Farron in 2008

Farron speaking at a Liberal Democrat conference in the Clyde Auditorium, Glasgow, 2014.

Farron in March 2014

On 16 September 2010, Farron announced he would be standing for the position of President of the Liberal Democrats following The Baroness Scott's decision not to seek re-election. He won the election with 53% of the vote, beating fellow candidate Susan Kramer on 47%.[11]

In March 2012, Farron was one of three MPs who signed a letter sent to the Advertising Standards Authority, criticising their recent decision to stop the Christian group "Healing on the Streets of Bath" from making explicit claims that prayer can heal. The letter called for the ASA to provide indisputable scientific evidence that faith healing did not work; Farron subsequently admitted that the letter was not "well-worded" and that he should not have signed it "as it was written".[12]

On 16 July 2015, Farron won the leadership election with 56.5% of the vote, ahead of Norman Lamb who achieved 43.5%.[1] Farron's first speech at the Liberal Democrat September 2015 Conference in Bournemouth was praised in the press.[15]

Among political observers, Farron is widely seen as being of left-leaning political position.[16][17][18][19] In a September 2016 interview, he identified the Liberal Democrats under his leadership as being centre-left.[20]

In December 2010, he voted against increasing the cap on undergraduate university tuition fees from £3,000 to £9,000.[22] Referring to Nick Clegg's earlier pledge not to raise fees—and the previous long-standing Liberal Democrat policy of abolishing them—he said: "Integrity is important. You must not only keep your word but be seen to keep your word. You can say no."[23]

He was the first senior British politician to back the EU proposal for a quota to take in refugees during the Mediterranean crisis. He called for the UK to accept up to 60,000 non-EU refugees to help with the influx. He attended the Refugee solidarity march in London in September 2015 and gave the opening speech.[6] In the 2016 Liberal Democrat Spring Conference, Farron accused the government of cowardice and heartlessness over their current refugee policy.[24]

Farron has said that 50% of target seats will be represented by women and 10 per cent of target seats will be represented by black, Asian and minority ethnic (BME) candidates.

Farron's appointment of party spokespeople was applauded for its diversity with 12 women and 10 men given positions. Women also took high ranking roles such as defence and economics spokesperson.[6][25]

He voted in favour of allowing marriage between two people of same sex at the second reading of the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill but he voted not to timetable the debate on the Bill, which would have made it much more difficult to pass had the House of Commons agreed with his position;[26] and he was absent for the vote for gay marriage on the third reading of the Bill.[27] In 2014 he voted in favour of extending the right to same sex marriage to Armed Forces personnel outside the United Kingdom.[28] He currently holds a 90.4% rating on the issue of same sex marriage according to the website Public Whip.[28]

During an interview with Cathy Newman for Channel 4 News in 2015 (following Farron's leadership success), Farron avoided a question from Newman on his personal beliefs regarding same-sex relations, saying that his "views on personal morality [didn't] matter", adding that to "understand Christianity is to understand that we are all sinners".[29] In response, Labour MP Ben Bradshaw said that:

For a Liberal, I thought his position seemed incredibly illiberal. Look, I don't think you should condemn someone or feel they're not fit for office just because they have religious faith. I'm a practising Anglican. I happen to be a liberal kind of Anglican, rather than a conservative evangelical, which it appears Tim Farron is. It seems to me he's pretty out of step with his own party even though they've just elected him leader.[30]

In 2007 he voted against the Equality Act (Sexual Orientation) Regulations, which for the first time imposed a general restriction on businesses discriminating against people on the grounds of sexual orientation.[31] However, in May 2015 he defended a court ruling which found that a Belfast bakery had acted unlawfully in refusing to carry out an order for a cake in support of gay marriage – saying "If you’re providing a service, that’s the key thing – you need to do so without prejudice, without discrimination against those who come through your door."[32]

Farron strongly supports the UK's membership of the European Union,[34] but criticised David Cameron's renegotiation as "about appealing to careerist Tory MPs, who were selected by Europhobic party members, to persuade them to vote to remain".[35]

Farron has criticised Britain's close ties with Saudi Arabia. He said: "It is time to shine a light onto the shady corners of our relationship with Saudi Arabia. It is time we stood up for civil liberties, human rights and not turn a blind eye because the House of Saud are our 'allies'."[37]

He supports the complete legalisation of marijuana for both medical and recreational purpose, saying that "The Liberal Democrats will be releasing a report in due course that lays out the case for a legalised market for sales of cannabis. I personally believe the war on drugs is over. We must move from making this a legal issue to one of health."[38]

Farron married Rosemary Cantley in July 2000 in Lancaster. The couple live in Milnthorpe, within the constituency Farron represents, with their two daughters (Isabella and Gracie, born in September 2001) and two sons (Jude and Laurie, born January 2004 and January 2006), the younger son being born since Farron's election to Parliament. He is a committed evangelical Christian and says that "becoming a Christian at the age of eighteen [was] the most massive choice I have made."[39]